Heroin

News about Heroin, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 26, 2015

Officials announce arrest of more than two dozen people in connection with sprawling oxycodone and heroin trafficking operation in suburbs north of New York City; ring, lead by Victor Esteban and based out of trailer park in Rockland County, brought drugs from city to ready market amid middle-class young adults. MORE

Feb. 26, 2015

Vermont has made gains against state's heroin addiction crisis, acute problem across New England; Gov Peter Shumlin devoted 2014 State of the State address to crisis, and State Legislature has supported his initiatives; about 40 percent more residents are pursuing treatment for addiction now than year ago, and long waiting lists at clinics have been reduced; heroin deaths in Vermont, however, totaled 35 in 2014, up 66 percent from 21 deaths in 2013. MORE

Feb. 5, 2015

New York State Atty Gen Eric T Schneiderman is expected to announce agreement with Amphastar Pharmaceuticals to offset increased price for naloxone, drug that is used to reverse heroin overdoses; Schneiderman had characterized sharp increase as unacceptable. MORE

Jan. 27, 2015

Clinton Foundation says it has negotiated lower price for emergency treatment of drug Naloxone, which reverses overdoses of prescription painkillers or heroin; rising cost of emergency treatment has curtailed its widespread use by first-responders in cities nationwide. MORE

Jan. 4, 2015

Poppy cultivation and opium it produces have flourished in Myanmar over past decade as many farmers turn to profitable crop; growing opium poppies is illegal in Myanmar, once the world’s largest supplier of heroin, but poor farmers say they have no other option; China is main market for superior quality of opium grown in 'Golden Triangle,' area that cuts across Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. MORE

Dec. 23, 2014

Study in journal AIDS and Behavior suggests that occasional heroin use may be worse for immune system than continual heroin use. MORE

Dec. 21, 2014

Heroin addiction in Kabul, Afghanistan, is at an all-time high as opium production continues to rise. MORE

Dec. 2, 2014

New York State Atty Gen Eric T Schneiderman demands explanation from Amphistar Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of heroin antidote naloxone, for steep increase in price of drug; in April, Schneiderman's office began $5 million program to reimburse police departments across state for purchases of critical lifesaving drug, and has since seen price surge, in some cases even doubling. MORE

Dec. 2, 2014

Much of wealth generated by Myanmar's booming jade industry is in control of elite members of military, rebel leaders and Chinese financiers who help them smuggle billions of dollars' worth of the gem into China; corrupt trade has robbed government of billions in tax revenues, fed violent ethnic conflict and mired members of Kachin minority, who work the mines, in poverty, heroin addiction and HIV infection. MORE

Dec. 1, 2014

Police departments nationwide have begun carrying naloxone, medication that reverses effects of heroin or opioid painkiller overdose, but soaring prices are raising alarm about future of distribution programs. MORE

Nov. 30, 2014

Transformation of Laurie Sperring from suburban mother and wife into heroin addict offers vivid, telling example of blight of heroin in Staten Island; drug washed over borough in wake of law enforcement crackdowns on painkillers and elected officials have characterized its hold on the borough as an epidemic. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

German police announce they seized record haul of heroin; say 330 kilograms, more than 700 pounds, is estimated to be worth $63 million on the street. MORE

Oct. 8, 2014

Young girl in Delaware mistakenly takes hundreds of packets of heroin to her day care center and passes them out to classmates, thinking it was candy; girl's mother is charged with child endangerment and maintaining a drug property. MORE

Aug. 28, 2014

Death toll from heroin in New York has more than doubled in last three years, with more people in city dying from overdoses than in any year since 2003; in all, 420 people fatally overdosed on heroin in 2013 out of a total of 782 drug overdoses; spread of drug hit hardest among white and higher-income residents but also spiked with older Hispanic users in Bronx. MORE

Aug. 11, 2014

Alex Morris of Sparta, NJ, who at 17 overdosed on heroin in 2001, never fully recovered and is totally dependent on his mother; doctors, who say most overdoses result in either full recovery or death, worry they will see more such outcomes with the rise in heroin users across the country; federal government says more than 660,000 Americans used heroin in 2012, double the number of five years earlier. MORE

Jun. 27, 2014

United Nations' Annual World Drug Report says illegal opium cultivation occupies more land worldwide than ever before, largely because of a surge in Afghanistan, world's dominant opium producer; also notes a rise in use of methamphetamines and marijuana in the United States. MORE

Jun. 20, 2014

Dennis Sica and John Rohlman are arraigned on federal narcotics charges in White Plains and each faces mandatory minimum of 20 years for three deaths in Dutchess County caused by extra-lethal heroin they sold. MORE

Jun. 19, 2014

New York Gov Andrew M Cuomo, along with state legislators, announces agreement on set of bills to improve access to addiction treatment and stiffen penalties for doctors and pharmacists who illegally sell opioid pills; legislation is part of continuing push to tackle New York State's heroin problem. MORE

Jun. 18, 2014

Governors of five New England states meet to devise a regional strategy to combat rise in overdoses and deaths from heroin and opioid abuse. MORE

Jun. 14, 2014

Greek officials say record 1.1 tons of heroin were seized and 11 people arrested east of Athens in joint operation with United States Drug Enforcement Administration. MORE

Jun. 13, 2014

More than 150 police forces across New York State are preparing programs that train officers in administering naloxone, lifesaving medication for drug users in throes of overdose; state is not alone, as police departments across the country seek to address national epidemic of heroin and opioid pill abuse. MORE

Jun. 12, 2014

New York State Gov Andrew M Cuomo is adding one hundred State Police investigators to drug units around New York, with mandate to tackle growing heroin problem in state; new officers will nearly double number of investigators assigned to narcotics teams that work with local police agencies on drug enforcement. MORE

May. 27, 2014

New York City police officers will soon carry medications to reverse effects of overdose from heroin or opioid prescription pills, expanding from successful program on Staten Island; $1.2 million effort, paid for with funds from New York State attorney general’s office, will give 19,500 kits with anti-overdose medication naloxone to patrol officers and other city officers most likely to come into street-level contact with overdose victims. MORE

May. 20, 2014

Flood of heroin coming into and going out of New York City has surged to the highest levels in more than two decades; deluge is alarming law enforcement officials who say bigger players are entering market to sell drug in city and feed growing appetite along East Coast. MORE

May. 20, 2014

Dutch police investigators say nearly 1,700 pounds of heroin was smuggled into the Netherlands hidden in a shipment of Iranian raisins. MORE

May. 11, 2014

Life of heroin addict identified only as Ann in Hazleton, Pa, illustrates how easy access to the drug combined with record prescription drug abuse has led to an epidemic of heroin addiction. MORE

May. 5, 2014

Rise of heroin-related deaths on Staten Island indicates epidemic that has ravaged young people in working- and middle-class communities, especially in borough's south; thirty-six people died from heroin overdoses in 2012, and amount of heroin seized by police jumped 300 percent from 2011 to 2013; interviews with addicts reveal that many turned to cheaper heroin following addiction to prescription painkillers. MORE

Apr. 30, 2014

Autopsies of Jeffrey Reynolds and Mark Kennedy, former Navy SEALs who were found dead in cabin aboard container ship Maersk Alabama in the Seychelles, reveal that the men died of respiratory failure and possible heart attacks caused by a a combination of heroin and alcohol. MORE

Apr. 18, 2014

Police officers across Staten Island will be equipped with and trained to use nasal spray naloxone that reverses effects of heroin or opioid pill overdose; move is expansion of pilot program in the borough and part of a broad national push to get the lifesaving medication into the hands of emergency workers amid what federal authorities have called an epidemic. MORE

Apr. 15, 2014

Study published in journal The Lancet finds that paying heroin addicts in Great Britain equivalent of $50 each to have series of three injections in a month was very effective in getting them fully vaccinated against hepatitis B; nearly quarter of Britain's addicts have hepatitis B. MORE

Apr. 13, 2014

Robert Aaron Vineberg, 57-year-old musician, heroin addict and sometime dealer, was thrust into public view following reports that he sold actor Philip Seymour Hoffman drugs that killed him; Aaron and friends claim that he is victim of Hoffman's celebrity and death, his life uprooted by media pressure for punishment MORE

Mar. 10, 2014

New York City police officers discover about five pounds of heroin in Flushing, Queens, apartment of Frank Giardina after responding to noise complaint; he is charged with first-degree criminal drug possession. MORE

Mar. 6, 2014

Vermont town of Bennington exemplifies the heroin epidemic that has swept through the state. MORE

Mar. 1, 2014

New York City medical examiner says actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was killed by poisonous mix of drugs that included not only heroin but also cocaine, amphetamines and sedatives. MORE

Feb. 28, 2014

Rural Vermont faces heroin epidemic and city of Rutland begins to attack it with social services, as well as with law enforcement; police have joined with social service providers to take more data-driven, coordinated approach to homes with multiple problems; city of 17,000 is trying to restore its young people and its reputation. MORE

Feb. 26, 2014

Deaths of Jeffrey Reynolds and Mark Kennedy by apparent heroin overdose aboard the Maersk Alabama cargo ship has focused attention both on daily life aboard the ship as well as drug use in the Seychelles; men were former Navy SEALs hired by private security company Trident Group to protect ship from pirates, and people who knew them express shock that either would have used heroin. MORE

Feb. 15, 2014

Robert Vineberg, studio musician who was arrested on drug charges during investigation into Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death, argues through his lawyer that he is not a drug dealer but merely longtime heroin addict. MORE

Feb. 11, 2014

Heroin, much of it from Mexico, has wormed its way into unsuspecting communities and small towns far from Southwestern border as a cheaper and often more easily obtained alternative to prescription painkillers; faces of heroin deaths nationally are getting younger and whiter in the wake of prescription painkiller epidemic. MORE

Feb. 11, 2014

Experts warn that increased use of prescription opiates like Vicodin and OxyContin can create an appetite that eventually leads addicts to street drugs like heroin. MORE

Feb. 6, 2014

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found dead in his Greenwich Village apartment after apparent heroin overdose, died, by all accounts, an addict’s death, with periods of outward normalcy interrupted by erratic behavior. MORE

Feb. 6, 2014

Robert Vineberg, Max Rosenblum and Juliana Luchkiw are arrested in connection with investigation into drug-related death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in Greenwich Village; police seize more than 350 packets of heroin in raid on Lower Manhattan apartment, but no official link has been established between trio and what police believe to be Hoffman's fatal heroin overdose. MORE

Feb. 5, 2014

Initial tests performed on substance found in packages in Philip Seymour Hoffman’s apartment in Manhattan confirm it to be heroin, though no trace was found of powerful additive fentanyl linked to 22 fatal overdoses; tests give further support to notion, pursued by detectives from the start of the death investigation, that Hoffman had overdosed. MORE

Feb. 4, 2014

Dozens of small packages of heroin found in the West Village apartment where actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died reflect fevered underground marketing effort in city that is awash in cheap heroin; heroin seizures in New York State are up 67 percent over last four years, and heroin-related overdose deaths in New York City rose 84 percent from 2010 to 2012, to 382. MORE

Feb. 4, 2014

Indian police say that they have intercepted 22 pounds of heroin headed from Pakistan to South India, breaking up a network that included a police officer from Indian-administered Kashmir. MORE

Jan. 29, 2014

Jim Dwyer About New York column focuses on Myles Coker, former legitimate businessman who was released from a life sentence in prison after 22 years; describes how Coker went from working for an illegal gambling operation to dealing heroin in Harlem. MORE

Jan. 28, 2014

Pennsylvania officials warn residents about dangerous batch of heroin that has caused 22 deaths. MORE

Jan. 9, 2014

Vermont Gov Peter Shumlin devotes his entire State of the State Message to epidemic of heroin addiction in the state; says he wants to encourage officials to respond to addiction as a chronic disease, rather than with only punishment and incarceration. MORE

Nov. 3, 2013

Report from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs estimates number of drug users in Afghanistan to be as high as 1.6 million, among the highest rates in the world; in a country troubled by adversity, drug addiction ranks low among national priorities; focus of the international community and the Afghan government has been on curbing opium production, rather than on treatment. MORE

Sep. 20, 2013

Judge Manuel J Mendez overturns New York City's firing of Damian Esteban, a tenured public school teacher who was arrested and charged with bringing 20 small packets of heroin into a Manhattan courthouse in 2012; ruling sends the matter back to the Education Dept with orders to impose a lesser penalty. MORE

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